On the second day of the Dushanbe Grand Prix Kelly Petersen-Pollard (Hardy Spicer; Fitzroy Davies) records her second medal in two weeks picking up bronze at the Dushanbe Grand Prix.
Following an opening-round bye, Petersen-Pollard topped her Pool with a victory against Garima Choudhary (IND). An ippon score for the -70kg judoka secured a place in the semi-final contest.
In the semi-final contest against Katarzyna Sobierajska (POL), Petersen-Pollard found herself fighting with a shido against her as the contest went into Golden Score. A second shido for the Brit piled the pressure on, where Sobierajska was able to capitalize, leaving Petersen-Pollard picking up a third shido handing the contest win to the Polish judoka.
Petersen-Pollard went on to face Serafima Moscalu (ROU) in the repechage. With nothing between the pair, the contest entered Golden Score with Petersen-Pollard having been awarded two shidos to Moscalu’s none. Petersen-Pollard piled the pressure on which eventually paid off, picking up a waza-ari score to secure the bronze medal in Dushanbe.
Following an opening round bye, Jemima Yeats-Brown (Ryecroft Judokwai; Ian Oliver) defeated Baasanjargal Bayarbat (MGL) in round two before progressing on to defeat Serafima Moscalu (ROU) in the quarter-finals. In the semi-final, Yeats-Brown was up against French judoka Margaux Pinot. Despite both judoka picking up a shido each, a waza-ari score for Pinot was enough to disrupt Yeats-Brown’s road to the final, though it turned out to be the Brit’s final contest of the competition. Yeats-Brown withdrew from the repechage, meaning the bronze medal was handed over to Loriana Kuka (KOS) and the Brit placed 5th in the competition.
In the -81kg category, Lachlan Moorhead (Sheffield JC; Matt Moorhead) started the day with an opening round bye and went on to face Giacomo Gamba (ITA) in round two where a waza-ari score for Gamba eliminated Moorhead from the competition.
Eric Ham (Glossop JC; Geoff Ham) was in action for the -73kg category and faced Dominic Rodriguez (USA) in his opening round where the contest went the distance and into Golden Score. Ham progressed to the third round after a waza-ari score where he was then up against Ibrahim Aliyev (AZE), but he wasn’t able to progress further in the competition after a third-round defeat.